First, Jacob is correct about the colors. Some years back, I was in contact with Dr. Roger Dunham, who wrote "Spy Boat", a book about the Halibut mission to find the K-129. I ended up making Halibut models for the 2002 Halibut crew reunion, using the then available Pitroad resin Halibut kits (One SSGN and one as the Special Projects version, scratch building several parts. I had information on the submarine from then that I passed along to Blue Ridge, which along with other research on their part, resulted in their superb model of Halibut.
I have not read the Dean book, but I did research work with Michael White & Norman Polmar on the Azorian book, as well as Micheal White's Azorian documentary film (still available). I can tell you that Michael White spent an enormous amount of time and money chasing down research from first hand sources. Initially, mission participants were reluctant to speak with him, but he managed one time to convey that he wanted to tell the
real story (not helping was that the book Red Star Rogue had come out around this time, which presented a classic Conspiracy Theory book about the mission).
Michael who worked on major films in the 1980's, also has an artistic genius for producing (along with his colleague, Markus Cermak) superb CGI renderings of the operation. Pictures online (such as this:
http://maritime-executive.com/media/images/article/Photos/Miscellaneous/Original/Glomar%20Explorer%20Moon%20Pool-update2.jpg) are stills from his CGI. He was also kind enough to share with me during the research period large scale drawings of the
Glomar Explorer, several engineering drawings of the CV, the HMB barge and the (from Russian archives) Russian Golf I and II classes, as well as B&W video taken from the CV and
Glomar Explorer, interview transcripts, raw film interviews etc. over the course of the 3 year period we worked on the documentary. The documentary film trailer is here :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h6rGrzD2VY. The documentary film DVD is still available from Amazon.
While I appreciate the comments by Jacob on the Polmar/White Azorian book and the original research done, additional details have come out since then. In my opinion the very best source is now the first hand account of the mission by former CIA engineer Dr. David H. Sharp. He was in on the planning, the engineering, and was one of the technical directors on board the
Glomar Explorer during the mission. He gives a blow by blow account of the details. Initially the CIA denied him the clearance to publish any parts of the book, but at least in part due to the Azorian documentary film led to their relenting. The book,
"The CIA's Greatest Covert Operation: Inside the Daring Mission to Recover a Nuclear-Armed Soviet Sub" is the best account you will find. Recently, it was opted by Ridley Scott's company for film treatment:
http://deadline.com/2017/08/cia-project-azorian-soviet-nuclear-submarine-movie-scott-free-new-sparta-1202153651/ Full disclosure: For reasons I won't go into further, I I am still in weekly email contact with both Michael White and David Sharp. I have been very privileged to work with Michael and get to know people like Dave, who were part of this incredible operation. It's been a long, incredible journey since I was a college student watching from afar the building of Howard Hughes' strange looking ship,
Glomar Explorer in Chester, Pa.